THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 9, 1994 TAG: 9410080023
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
Nauticus is more than a museum, more than an aquarium, more than a place to park the kids on a rainy afternoon . . . and less an attraction than its boosters predicted it would be and its budget needs it to be.
So far, this wonder on Norfolk's waterfront is a cautionary tale, a yellow light for Portsmouth and other cities contemplating a tourist attraction financed largely by tax-backed bonds.
For so far, as reporter Stephanie Stoughton notes in an article today, Nauticus' revenues are $2.3 million short of the less-than-break-even-point its supporters projected at this stage of the project. With revenues short of projections and $6 million in donations drawn down by expected start-up expenses, a $2 million-plus principal and interest payment on $33 million in city-backed bonds is due in February 1995. Whatever portion of such payments Nauticus cannot pay out of revenues and donations, Norfolk taxpayers will pay.
The revenues for August and September, when finally reported next month, could close that gap. Nauticus drew 17,000 visitors over the long Labor Day weekend. The prospect of the MacArthur Center nearby and the growing reality of the Granby Street campus of Tidewater Community College will draw more people downtown. Norfolk's Virginia Waterfront ad campaign informing millions of Northeasterners of the strand of tourist attractions from Williamsburg to the Oceanfront should help as well.
But the budget gap meantime is whopping. And Nauticus staff acknowledge disappointment in the number of paying customers, particularly hometown visitors.
Part of the problem is customers' disappointment in the Nauticus experience. Director Michael Bartlett acknowledges glitches in exhibits, a failure to ``child-proof'' hands-on displays and staffing adjustments. Some of these frustrations come with any new territory, and Nauticus is new territory.
But some failures to anticipate seem avoidable: the level of sophistication of young visitors weaned on Apples and of their elders schooled on real Aegisware, for example, and the exhaustion of overpetted sharks. And some predicted boons became banes with time. In June, for instance, rainy days were touted as a boost to Nauticus attendance. By August, rainy days were a washout. Weather, good or bad, won't make or break Nauticus.
Part of the problem is price, and adjustments, such as special discounts after 6 p.m. and for Norfolk residents (4,000 of them at last count) are under way. Locals just plain won't pay as much as vacationers - particularly locals who'd like to see the rest of the city paved with as good intentions, and as deliberate speed, as the road to Nauticus.
That's a final part of the problem: the city's apparent reluctance to open up about Nauticus' prospects and performance. Turnips could bleed before officials offer the public fast and accurate figures on Nauticus' attendance and income. That reluctance fuels suspicions of residents already skeptical of its worth.
Nauticus has worth, present and future, direct and indirect, downtown and citywide. But it hasn't lived up to its hype; and the more plainly its problems are stated, the sooner they can be solved. by CNB